Fallen Emerald
by Wilona Riva
Summary: Jazz notes something is wrong with Danny and follows him into the Ghost Zone. When Danny forces her back into the lab, she goes to Tucker and Sam for answers; neither of them knows anything.
1. Big Sister's Intuition

Fallen Emerald

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_Originally part of a series of oneshots called "Woman of Years", I've decided to elevate this story to full fic status. Summary: Jazz notes something is wrong with Danny and follows him into the Ghost Zone. When Danny forces her back into the lab, she goes to Tucker and Sam for answers; neither of them knows anything. Three weeks later, Danny tells her, and that's where we'll pick up next chapter._

* * *

**Big Sister's Intuition**

* * *

"What the heck possessed you to follow me into the Ghost Zone, Jazz?" Danny asked, forming a ball of green energy in his right hand.

I eyed it warily. "Big sister's intuition," I replied.

"Wrong answer," my little brother retorted, thrusting his hand into my face.

I screamed and jumped back, right back into our parents' lab. "Darn, you, Danny!" I yelled.

"He did it to you too, huh?" Sam asked, poking her head around the corner.

"What do you mean by that?" I demanded.

"He's been going into the Ghost Zone more and more," Sam replied. "He won't even talk to us about what's bothering him."

"That's definitely not like him," I said, frowning in thought.

"We'd thought that if any one knew Danny the best, it would be you," Tucker added, joining in the conversation.

I sighed. "Nope. Fresh out of ideas."

"Psych ward ran out of crazy pills?" Tucker teased.

Sam and I stared at him for a minute, then began to laugh.

"Don't worry, Jazz, we'll get to the bottom of this 'mystery' with Danny," Sam reassured me.

"Okay," I murmured.

* * *

About three weeks later, I got my answer.

Knock. Knock.

"Come in, Danny," I said, without looking up from my book.

"It's creepy when you do that," he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Spill," I ordered.

So he did, and I wish to God, he hadn't.


	2. Talking to Danny

Fallen Emerald

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_For everyone who has read __**Poor Flower, Poor Heart**__, a new poll is up. For Valentine's Day this year, you will find out who sent Danny the magic Valentine's Day card. Find the poll in my profile and vote, vote, vote. One week from today, I will shut down the poll and your choice will determine the ending to the story._

* * *

**Talking to Danny**

* * *

I froze on the stairwell; surely my parents heard the loud creak that reverberated throughout the silent monstrosity we Fentons call home. A loud sudden snort, followed by silence, then my dad mumbling something about ghosts before gently snoring like a submachine gun again.

My mother has the right idea with the Fenton Ear Plugs.

I slipped silently through the kitchen and downstairs to the lab. Pressing my thumb to the Fenton Genetic Lock, I opened the portal and met Danny's emerald eyes in the green swirling light of the Ghost Zone.

I folded my arms. "Explain," I ordered, "and no skimping."

He let out a loud sigh and ran one hand through his snow-white locks. He muttered something that vaguely sounded like a cross between a curse and a prayer. Emerald eyes stared vacantly up at the ceiling for a few minutes before swinging back to meet mine.

"Mom gave me a blood blossom," he said, his voice a bit more than a whisper. "She didn't realize it, but doing so is a sign I am no longer wanted on this plane."

"Danny, your her son," I said aghast. "She and Dad think you've run away and have been scouring all of Amity Park for you. Dad is absolutely sure you've been kidnapped by ghosts after Mom shot down his alien theory."

"Aliens, Jazz?" Danny chortled as he said this. He shook his head disbelievingly.

"Come out of the Ghost Zone, Danny, and back to bed," I suggested. "We can talk after school about this some more tomorrow."

"I no longer walk the planes of the living," he reminded me. "The blood blossom compels me until I am born anew in the age to come."

"Come again?" It was my turn to blink, and not just from the bright light that flared up around us. I turned around to see Mom silently watching us, her blue robe clutched tightly in pale hands.

"Danny?" she whispered, seeing Danny in his ghost form, pale as death in the emerald light of the portal.

"It's the Avalonia," he told her sternly. "You sent me from this plane with the cursed wandering bloom that seeks the plasma of all spiritkin."

"It was a mistake, Danny," she pleaded with him. "Please, come out of there. Your father and I are sorry. We should not have been blind to all the signs."

"What is the Avalonia?" I asked Danny, interrupting Mom's apology.

"Not a what, but a who," he replied. "Bring Sam and Tucker tomorrow after school and meet me in Pandora's temple. I'll explain everything then. _**Do not**_, under any circumstances, bring the hunters with you, Jazz. This is to be a sign of trust between your world and mine."

"Alright," I told him, grabbing hold of Mom around the waist. Tears were still falling down her face as she pleaded with him once more. He looked coldly back at her before fading away into the surrounding emerald light.

"He's gone, Mom," I told her. "Let's go back to bed."

"Bring him home, Jazz," she replied between sobs. "Just bring my baby home."

"I can only try," I replied, guiding her upstairs and shutting off the light.


	3. Way of the Worlds

Fallen Emerald

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

**Way of the Worlds**

* * *

"How the bloody hell did I get sucked in playing nursemaid to three human whelps?" Skulker grumbled, while screwing his head into place.

"Because the Avalonia has been cast aside again by the ones who should have loved him," Ember, his girlfriend, answered, handing him his boots. "Check your circuitry, while your added; the Avalonia did a number on you the last time you fought."

"Check," he grumbled, putting on his spiked tipped black leather boots with the skull straps. "If the whelp wasn't who he was..."

"You'd really skin him for this," Ember finished. "So you've said thousands of times already. Quit dawdling and go. You know the Avalonia has to cut his ties to the mortal planes."

"Yeah, yeah," he said, waving her off. "I'm gone."

"Love you, too," she said, kissing him softly, just before he teleported.

* * *

"...and that what happened last night," Jazz finished telling Tucker and Sam, tucking a stray strand reddish-orange hair behind her ear and adjusted the comfort of her headset. On the computer's monitor, she could see Tucker furiously typing away on another of his PDAs and Sam giving him a penetrating glare.

"Hang on," he said, without looking up at either of them. "I remember reading something about that once somewheres...Ah! There it is. Sending you both the link now."

A new screen popped up on Jazz's laptop. Opening it up, she read the following excerpt:

_There is a legend in the world of spirits of the Isle of Apples, said to be the final resting place of King Arthur and the wellspring of sorcery. There is also a much darker, ancient tale of a spirit child who is said to claim the Isle of Apples as his final resting place. He is often referred to by the anciens as the Avalonia._

"I couldn't crack the rest of the text," Tucker apologized, yawning slightly. "I'm going to hit the hay now. See you tomorrow, Jazz."

"Right," she murmured, eyes not lifting from the screen.

"Jazz?" Sam's voice broke into her thoughts, violet eyes peering into her own from the webcam.

"Yeah?"

"Don't worry," Sam told her. "We'll get him back and soon."

"I only hope so," Jazz answered. "Good night, Sam."

"Okay. Let me know how it goes tomorrow."

"Alright."

"Do you think this is a wise idea, Phantom?" the tall, beautiful woman in a gold and black Greek costume asked him. Her ruby eyes bored into his emerald ones, as she toyed with one of the violet flamed braids she wore today.

"They need closure," Phantom replied, sighing for the third time that morning. "You know, Pandora, that I will be bound to the Isle of Apples within three days. I have sent a guide to them."

"Who, my son?" Pandora demanded.

"I am not your son," came back the reply. "We are equals, Pandora, so quit acting like my mother. I expect it to be Jazz, Sam and Tucker. The guide is Skulker."

"Not the smartest idea, Avalonia."

"Go to the graveyard, O Mighty Keeper of the Box of All Evil."

Pandora threw her head back and laughed. By all the Ancients, she had missed these conversations with her male counterpart.

* * *

"It's just you?" Skulker asked the red-haired human child.

"Yes," Jazz replied. "Danny did say no ghost hunters, and Sam and Tucker officially count as ghost hunters in my book."

"They are better than your parents, girl," Skulker admitted. "Well, let's be on the way."

"Jazz, wait!" her mother's voice called out, causing both the human girl and the ghost to swing their heads in the direction of the stairs.

"Mom, you can't. He said no," Jazz protested.

"I am your mother and his," Maddie told her daughter steely. "Can you safely carry two, ghost?"

"My name is Skulker and yes, huntress." He grinned evilly at the thought of pissing off the Avalonia, then paled. "On second thought, perhaps that might not be a wise idea."

"How much do you value your life, Skulker?" Maddie countered, holding up a small glowing ecto-pen knife.

"Uh, let's get going, Ghost X," Jazz said, breaking up the almost fight. "Don't want to keep Danny waiting, do we?"

"My/His name is Skulker," the two combatants snapped at her, before looking at each other.

"Weird," Skulker commented, grabbing the two of them and plunging into the green swirling depths of the Ghost Zone.


	4. End of Night

Fallen Emerald

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

**End of Night**

* * *

"Wow, this place is right out of the pages of a Greek Mythology text," Jazz gushed, teal eyes wide at the sites around her. "Let's see, so far we've been chased by centaurs, the Minotaur and an Argus. Then, we had to thread our way through Daedalus' labyrinth and solve a riddle by Sphinx. Wonder what we'll meet next?"

"You had to ask, human child?" Skulker grumbled as the ground shook beneath them. He looked up to see Pandora's temple shining in the distance, then over at the huntress in her blue robe, who had said nothing since they'd past the portal.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

"I want my son back," she murmured hallowly.

"None have ever wanted him back once the Avalonia's true nature was revealed. You are a strange one, mortal," he grunted, as the ground shook once more.

* * *

Pandora's head jerked in the directed of her garden maze and narrowed her ruby eyes. "I sense your guide and two human females having fun, Phantom, in my gardens below. "

Danny raised an eyebrow. "Why don't you just teleport them here?"

"Where's the fun in all that? Besides, they've just reached the best part," Pandora said, grinning.

Danny rolled his eyes at her. "And that would be...?"

"The ground shaker."

"Oh, hell!" the Avalonia said, shooting to his feet. "I've got to get them out of there."

Pandora yanked him back down into his seat. "You will do no such thing. They must prove their worth after what they've done to you."

Danny thought about it for a minute and then nodded reluctantly. "Can you tell if it's Sam and Jazz?"

Pandora closed her eyes and concentrated. "I see the hunter. He has currently unleashed cold and heat grenades at the ground shaker. The older of the two human females shields the younger from a beam of ecto-energy unleashed by the ground shaker. The rules you have set have been broken, Avalonia."

"What?!" Danny shouted, emerald eyes wide with alarm.

"The two females shared the same blood," Pandora continued. "The huntress has come after all. Perhaps or perhaps not to claim you."

Danny shook with fear. "She's going to k-k-kill me."

"Perhaps or perhaps not," Pandora told him, opening her ruby eyes. "Things change all the time, I believe, on both planes."

* * *

"That was fun," Skulker said, as he deactivated his weapons arsenal and switched on his rockets. "Grab onto me. I'm going to blast us out of this maze."

"The ghost who owns this isn't going to be happy," Jazz pointed out.

"I'll deal with the repercussions later," Skulker told her, as Jazz and Maddie wrapped both arms around his neck. "Ugh, you mortals are heavy."

"Are you calling me fat?" Jazz shouted into the wind as Skulker shot himself into mid-air. He ignored her. He was used to such outbursts from Ember.


	5. Mist

Fallen Emerald

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

**Mist**

* * *

"Avalonia, where are you going?" Pandora shrieked, ruby eyes wide with fright. "I said I was sorry."

"They are my family," he stated, emphasizing each word with a sharp puncturing gesture. "You will not hold them back from me."

"Phantom, calm down," Pandora told him, her breathing slowly returning to normal. Yes, ghosts can breathe. They are not the spirits of the dead-well, some were-as stories depicted them. "The hunter has activated his flight ability and the three of them are landing on the temple steps as we speak."

Phantom sighed and shook his head, snow-white locks sticking up everywhere. "Alright, Pandora," he said, emerald eyes narrowed in thought. "I will stay put for now. No more games."

"Of course, Avalonia," Pandora purred. She sent out a mental command for the Phoenix to greet and usher their guests to the back garden. "The Phoenix will greet them and bring them here. The back garden is such a pleasant place isn't it?"

"Uh..." Phantom was at a lost for words, but even he knew better to argue with the ancient female spirit.

* * *

"This is my son's lair?" Maddie asked, eyes drinking in the Doric style Greek temple they'd landed in front of.

"No," Skulker replied. "I already told you, mortal, that this is the lair of the Pandora. The Avalonia merely visits."

"So he shares his lair with a girl ghost? Eww!" Jazz said, making a face. Both her mother and Ghost X stared at her. "Sorry, having a Paulina moment there."

"Nothing to apologize for there, youngling," a gentle voice replied to her. All three watched in amazement as an exotic bird with gold-on-flames colored wings hovered over them. "Forget it, hunter," it added, seeing the calculating look in Skulker's eyes. "I am merely a messenger of the Pandora. They await you in the back garden. I will guide you there."

"Don't we need to freshen up a bit first?" Maddie asked, plucking the hem of her robe.

"It is your heart we are interested in, not your outer wrappings," the Phoenix answered. "Come."

See no choice, they followed the Pandora's messenger into the temple and out a side door. This garden was secretive and gorgeous. A large wicker-work gazebo with a roof of human bones lodged in the center. Slouched against one of the beams was Danny, watching them with clever, glittering, emerald eyes.

"There is a very faint glimmer of hope," were his first words to them, a hint of a smile tugging at his lips. "Come. Pandora has prepared refreshments for you."


	6. Stolen Ash

Fallen Emerald

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

**Stolen Ash**

* * *

"If it weren't two days until my binding, Jazz, I'd get you back for this," Skulker heard Phantom mutter to his older mortal sister, while being tightly hugged by the mortal huntress. He snickered at the Avalonia's discomfort.

"Having fun?" he asked, smirking.

"How much do you value your suit?" the Avalonia growled, then yelped as something sharp punctured his skin. Skulker watched amazed as the drug quickly knocked out the boy.

"Get us out of here," Skulker was ordered. He looked nervously around, not seeing the Pandora. He breathed a sigh of relief, scooped up the Avalonia and flung him over his shoulder. "The things I do for you, whelp," he grumbled under his breath. Weight for him was no problem; he motioned for the two human females to grab onto him tightly and activated his rockets.

"Stop! Stop!" cried the Phoenix, who then changed his tone and began yelling for Pandora to stop the theft of the male counterpart of her mistress.

The green atmosphere darkened, signifying the Zone coming alive around them.

"What's going on?" Jazz demanded an answer out of the ghost flying them back to the portal.

"You're idiot of a brother, that's what!" Skulker snapped. "Seriously, he should just fry the stupid plant's roots and be done with it."

"What plant?" Maddie demanded.

"The one you gave the brat," Skulker answered. "The blood blossom is the root of the deepest desire of the Avalonia's core. This lifetime, human, is the only one that we have seen him give his all and receive it back ten-fold. And you threw it back in his face. Personally, you should just do this world a favor and commit suicide."

"Skulker!" Jazz exclaimed, but the ghost shook his head warningly.

"Save it," he told them, handing the boy over to the mortal huntress. "I've bought you two days to regain the boy's trust. The drug I gave him will allow him to flirt with the curse's boundaries. Listen to what he has to say to you. If he chooses to return to the Zone before the two days are over, do not follow. All spiritkin will consider familial ties severed and burned."

"Why do you even care about Danny?" Maddie hotly told him.

"He and Pandora are the life and psyche of our world," came the parting explanation, as the ghost dropped them on the portal's edge and then disappeared back into the green, black and purple void.


	7. Sidney

Fallen Emerald

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

**Sidney**

* * *

For the third blessed time, Maddie was glad that Jack had not even suspected that she'd taken a trip into the Ghost Zone with a _ghost_ hunter and their daughter on a madcap journey to save their son, who was the same deliquent rapscallion teenage hellion they'd been trying to capture for over a year now. She and Jazz peeked through the open portal to find Jack was tinkering with some tubular piece of machinery, muttering something about 'blistering Phantom's behind'.

Maddie silently sighed. This was how Jack coped with every crisis in their lives-tinkering. "His back is turned to us; Danny's not too heavy for you, is he?"

"He's light as a feather, Mom," Jazz joked, teal eyes not twinkling with inner mischief as she shifted his light frame for more comfort. "Can you distract him, Mom?"

"He's got the Fenton Ear Plugs in," her mother observed. "Maybe...Jazz, is it possible to tap into your brother's invisibility gift?"

"No," came the reply softly from behind them. The two of them gasped, finding a grey-skinned, grey-eyed boy dressed in fiftie's fashion seriously looking them over. He pushed his black frames up his nose for better support. "I'm Sidney Pointdexter, a friend of Phantom's. Is it true?"

"Is what true?" Maddie asked.

"Why is the hunter telling everyone Phantom, the Avalonia, has been cast out from the mortal plane by the family the Time Master gifted him to?"

"Huh?"

"For a ghost hunter, you don't know much about ghosts," Sidney stated. "Uh-oh, big guy is turning around. Here, let me give you a lift."

The sudden sensation of being immersed in deep, dark, cold water, followed by the rapidly approaching aluminum tiled ceiling, then floating through it, left Maddie wishing she'd never laid eyes on that damned bush that Jack had planted in the back garden several days ago.

"That went well," she commented, after they laid Danny on the bed and ensured that he wasn't going to _accidentally_ fall through it. "I'd like to know how we are going to disguise him so your father doesn't notice?"

"Got that covered," Jazz said, reaching over for Danny's cell phone, which was on his night stand. Dialing the second number on the speed dial, she quickly whispered a few words involving Danny, makeup, and _she knows_.

"Sam's on her way," Jazz stated, flipping the phone shut.

"What is that?" Sidney asked, snatching the weird-looking device from Jazz's hands. " Groovy, it's a small telephone. I remember we had a mobile phone in the car; they weren't very common back in my era."

"Uh, yeah," said Jazz, feeling a bit awkward, looking over the silent form of her brother, still in the embrace of Skulker's drug. "How long is he supposed to be out like this?"

"Long enough," Sam snapped, dropping the tote bag she was carrying. "I was already on the way over when you called."

"Uh, do I even want to know?" Maddie wondered.

"Skulker," came three voices in unison.

"Sidney, what can you tell me about the Avalonia? Everyone keeps treating him like he's some kind of god," Jazz asked, changing the topic.

"The Avalonia?" Sam queried, one eyebrow slightly raised. "I've only caught fleeting references of him in the darkest of gothic ghost tales."

"It's a taboo subject among the inner circle of the International Ghost Hunters Academy," Maddie added. "I don't really know much myself."

"You, cool cats, have a seat," Sidney told them, adjust his glasses again. "It's a very long story, most of what I know is from research and hearsay."

Down below, Jack was wondering why in the heck were there red flower petals and three sets of glowing green footprints on the very edge of the open portal.


	8. Tower of Flames

Fallen Emerald

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

**Tower of Flames**

* * *

_It was many years ago, before Time began, or so I have been told. Tempus, the Time Lord, was the first of the Ancients. After him, the Eleven arose from the midst of the Void. Male and Female both arose together:_

_Onnjel, the Messenger._

_Raynor, the Warrior of Judgment._

_Neoma, the New Moon._

_Balbo, the Mutterer._

_Geulah, the Redeemer._

_Medwin, the One Who Listens._

_Aspasia, who Welcomes._

_Tychon, who Settles All Accounts._

_Zada, the Lady who Showers You with Fortune._

_Darshan, the Foreseer._

_Kikylia, the Farseer._

_These twelve rose from the Void in the Heart of the World and knew that though Tempus was the first of all spiritkin, yet one was here before them, though no one knew of his existence for millennia on end._

"Wow, Danny's really old," Jazz commented, as her brother shifted uncomfortably in his sleep.

"Yes," Sidney admitted, "but let me go on with the story. I should have told you this two weeks ago if I hadn't so many deadlines looming on the horizon." He clapped his hands to his mouth.

"Sorry," he told them sheepishly. "Don't know where that came from. Now where was I? Oh yes. Her."

_Pandora._

_She who holds the Soul of the World entombed in her box._

_The Observants were but mere babes when the wind sent word of her coming to Tempus. She was old before the first motes of dust came into existence. We thought she was the eldest of all spiritkin, til Medwin lost his balance and tumbled from a great height, landing on the Isle of Apples. _

_That's when we first learned of the male counterpart to Pandora._

_The child phantom._

_The Avalonia._

"It is the Avalonia who holds the life of all spiritkin in his grasp," Sidney concluded. "It is he who, with Pandora, birthed Tempus and the Ancients. It is he who fathered us all. It is also he who lies silent within that soft mortal bed."

He glared fiercely at Maddie, who paled and shrunk away, as he punctured each word with a sharp gesture. "IT. IS. HE. WHO. YOU. REJECTED. He asked Tempus to make him human so he could understand mortalkind. Tempus told him there would be limits placed on him if he undertook his foolish mission. The Avalonia didn't care and agreed to whatever was to come."

"What were those limits?" Jazz asked him.

"I don't know," Sidney admitted, "but Pandora does. She devised them, drawing power from each of the Ancients and the Avalonia himself to create the barriers."

"So now what do we do?" Maddie wondered.

"We wait," Jack said, from the doorway behind them. "Maddie, what have you done?"

* * *

**Author's Note: Okay, I know, I know. Two weeks late. No excuses. I will have the next chapter of **_**At Three **_**up in the next week or two.**


End file.
